10 July 2005 1950z
As expected as it was that I would be kept back a few extra days, I actually thought for a few minutes there that they would let me leave. I was so convinced that I had even packed up my computer. It wasn't until about fifteen minutes ago that I pulled it back out of my bag. Something about the short notice and the sudden opportunity just got me all caught up in the moment. And I don't keep on bringing up the short notice to complain. I honestly don't think that there was much our unit could have done to have predicted that a few hundred seats would just open up to get us out of country. I just bring it up to give you a better picture of the utter mayhem of clothes flying and belongings being thrown in the trash as split second decisions were made to ensure that we would be ready in time for the transportation to bring us to the flight line. Unfortunately, I ended up having about five guys left behind, and they had to clean up the aftermath.
Anyway, since I'm still here, let's talk about today's events. Today marked the start of the spoon wars in my platoon. Everyone was bustling this morning, painting their spoons and whatnot. I ended up making a few more myself. I started with my decoy spoon. I'd painted in a pattern along the edges to make the spoon look like a fork. I think it was quite ingenius myself. I'll try to take a picture before I lose it or break it. Then I started whittling down a piece of 2x4 to carve out my own wooden spoon. That was going well until I had to carve out the little scoop part and decided to switch to chiseling. In the end, my spoon split in half at the handle. Go figure.
Other than that, I spent about two hours in the gym tonight after I said good-bye to my outbound soldiers. Being that this was quite possibly my last gym experience here in Afghanistan, I thought I'd make the workout a memorable one. Then I came back to the hooch, showered (oh yeah, forgot to mention my haircut after the BUB tonight), and then sat down on my cot and unpacked my computer. And there you have it.
I should go to sleep right now, but I feel the need to continue typing for a little while longer. My thoughts are currently on our demobe at Bragg. I know my dad e-mailed me his hotel reservations a few days ago, but I've since forgotten the dates. I'll check again when I go online, but for now, I'm in my hooch. I wonder if I'll make it back in time. If not, Roo will be around. He was on the ADVON. In either case, I should be back sometime around this upcoming weekend. That's going to be weird.
Being that I didn't go home for leave, this'll be a year since I've stepped foot on American soil. What's strange is that there is nothing that I really look forward to doing. Yeah, I know what some of you are thinking. Of course sex is on a lot of peoples' minds. But me, I never really got any in the last few years leading up to the deployment, so I don't figure it'll be all that different when I get home. Okay, that's pretty much the most I'll ever talk about sex on this page. Moving on...
I guess I am looking forward to doing a few things. First off, there's mail. I'm kinda looking forward to going through all of my mail from this last year. I know that it's probably all bills and stuff, but still. I'm hoping that there will be a stack of applications for my scholarship program, but somehow I think my sister would have told me ahead of time if there were. What else? Grocery shopping and sitting down with the Sunday circulars and clipping coupons...opening my new windows which I haven't seen yet...pretending to have flashbacks when people won't stop staring or looking at me funny...walking through the aisles of a music store and grabbing every single new album release that I've missed this last year...going back down to Benning for my advance course and possibly stopping off in Atlanta to visit a few old friends...buying stuff.
And then there are the things that I'm not sure if I want to deal with any more when I go back home. For instance, do I really need a cell phone? Right now, I think I can make it without one, but I'm sure things'll change once I return to civilization. Then there's TV. I think I want to start a boycott of that except for the news. I don't look forward to paying for things again either...especially my mortgage...or gas. I don't know. Things are so much simpler over here. Maybe I should volunteer to stay another year.
10 July 2005 0245z
1. Each soldier will design a spoon which he will keep with him at all times.
2. The spoon will act as a weapon or a shield. As a weapon, the spoon must be wielded in the soldier's hand while it touches his target in order for him to execute a kill. However, if the target has a spoon in hand, it acts as a shield and provides him protection from all other would-be assassins.
3. At the beginning of the game, each soldier is assigned a target, who will remain anonymous until the attempt is made on his life.
4. Each soldier will keep a piece of paper with the name of his target at all times. If and when he is killed, he will relinquish this piece of paper to his assassin, along with his spoon.
5. Protected areas include the soldier's bed, the shower, and the gym, but only during the middle of an exercise. At all other times, the gym is an open area.
6. If any soldier has his spoon taken from him while it is unattended, he must take the "walk of shame."
That's pretty much it. It's kinda childish, but it's something to do while we wait for the birds to leave.
Last night, I ended up sitting down with a bunch of officers and we just started to discuss things. It ended up becoming an informal AAR that ended up lasting maybe two hours. Near the end, the topic of conversation started to shift towards history and politics. I was torn. I was supposed to be in the gym with a bunch of my guys by now, but I hadn't really had such an intellectual conversation in a long time. I was learning so much that I ended up hanging around a little longer. By the time I wound up at the gym, all of my guys had come and gone. I felt bad about that, but I worked out for a little while before I circled back around to the hooch to apologize. They were playing spades when I showed up and the new guys were showing off the spoons they'd made. Just a few more days, mom. We'll be home.
08 July 2005 2100z
Being human, though, makes things harder. I would like to say that I've gone through life without regrets, but I have a few. I'd like to say that I've gone through this last year without making any mistakes, but that wouldn't be true either. Apologizing is a hard thing to do in the military. Maybe it's just me. I don't know.
The other half of my platoon flew up from Ghazni this morning; and after I gave them some time to settle in, we gathered in the battalion classroom for our platoon after action review. Basically, we sat around and talked about how things went this last year and a half. We brought up good points, bad points, things we could have improved on, and so forth. For me, a lot of what was said wasn't all that surprising, but it was still a good exercise because it allowed a lot of the younger soldiers to share their opinions about how things were done. The main goal of a session like this is to identify lessons learned and whatnot; but it also helps because it gives all of the soldiers an opportunity to say their piece and be heard. In a platoon setting, even in a close platoon, some people will inevitably hold back. My platoon is no exception. I know that there were a few issues that they didn't bring up. But I am proud for the ones who did speak their mind and saw this as a way to build on experiences instead of making it one big bitch session like some AARs tend to become. Either way, I'm glad how this session ended and I hope this is one in many steps we'll take to improve our platoon and the guard as a whole.
So...the two hour AAR is over and it is followed by an hour of battalion and company level meetings. I know a few of my NCOs are probably hating me for this. But even better, the company meeting is followed by 2-3 more hours of intense questioning and scrutiny because of some class five issues...aka ammunition. Okay, ammunition. That's my platoon's specialty. For the last 2-3 years, the attitude of the battalion, company, and staff has been something along the lines of: I don't care how you do it. Just make it happen. Of course, now that we're going home and things are getting to be a little more complicated, that attitude is starting to change. Now, while I don't mind the extra interest in my job, it is still that...my job. So after hours of discussion with a half dozen platoon sergeants and a half-dozen platoon leaders who had very little to do with the situation, and a few higher-ranking people who had just as little to do with the situation, we came to the following solution. Basically, we will do another inventory in the morning, and it'll be my platoon's responsibility to fix everything. Wow, if I'd known that we were going to end up at that conclusion, why did I sit there and waste three hours listening as various people tried to tell me and my platoon members how to do our job?
I guess what upsets me the most about this evening (besides the fact that I missed dinner and the gym) is that one of my soldiers was getting grilled through most of the evening. And while I tried to calm him down at various points throughout the question and answering session, I didn't really stand up for him until he ended up blowing up a little. I mean, I can try rationalizing it all I want; but in the end, I feel like I should have stood up for him more. Being away from the platoon for such a long time, I can come up with a hundred reasons why I shouldn't be expected to be held accountable for everything. But it's like I said at the beginning of this. It's my platoon and these are my guys. I know that they did the best they could under the circumstances, and they did a good job at that. Even with my seven measly years in the Army, my guys gave me enough so that I could fix everything with some number-crunching and paperwork. After all, that's what I seem to do best these days. I just wish that I could have fixed it earlier and headed all of this off so that they didn't get in the line of fire.
Oh, it's just frustrating. I am fortunate enough to get to see the big picture, so just doing my job is rewarding enough for me. But for my guys, I know it's tough. For the good of the company, for the good of the battalion, they're always taking hits. I try to reinforce the importance of what they do, but I don't think it sinks in because they don't get that from their peers or anyone else outside of the platoon. Very few of the people they are serving will ever recognize their contributions and their sacrifices...and that's sad.
07 July 2005 1924z
Alright...let me stop before I get all touchy-feely. In other news, the BICC came up a few days ago. It took two days before I finally caught up with him last night. Of course we started off with the normal talk about finances and investments; but then our conversation branched off a little and I showed him all of the various Baltimore properties I was scouting out for him while he was away. That was kinda neat, and we just spent a few hours shooting the stuff while hanging out in the TOC last night after my workout in the gym. I'd had so much water to drink that I ended up going to the latrine four times during our conversation. It was nice though. I had a good time. Talking is definitely the best way to pass the time around here while we wait for the freedom birds.
06 July 2005 1506z
Anyway, I don't care if anyone cares about the layout, but I'll go ahead and talk about it anyway. We were scheduled to have everything laid out for the customs inspector at 0515z, so my battle and I packed up the gator around 0430z and took all of our gear out to the concrete pad. I hadn't spent a lot of time packing these last few days because I knew I'd have to dump everything out anyway. But now that I was out there, I took some extra care. I had flashbacks of my OCS inspections, so I folded everything up before placing them neatly on my poncho. Then I took my six pairs of boots and laced them all nice and tight and lined them up behind. I even took a few minutes to polish my old pair of black boots that I haven't worn in nearly two years. I was just being silly at that point. It was about an hour into the whole ordeal and the temperature was already pushing a hundred degrees, I'm sure. Anyway, that was fun for the short while that it lasted. The inspector glanced at my stuff and took approximately 5 seconds before clearing me and telling me to pack everything back up. If I didn't have so much fun doing it, I may have been upset that it only took him five seconds. But I'd rather have that than have him inspect everything and tell me to brush off every speck of sand from my equipment.
This afternoon, I found myself in a room in front of approximately forty of our African-American soldiers. I was invited by one of the sergeants to read a passage during a ceremony for our modern day Buffalo Soldiers. That was followed by a photo session and dinner at the D-fac. Now, I don't want to seem racist here, but you should have seen the looks on some of these people's faces when they saw forty black soldiers take seats around them in the D-fac. In any case, it was a nice event and I was honored to have taken part.
05 July 2005 1913z
As far as the other highlights, I found myself in the new Subway next to the gym earlier today. When I saw the red wine vinaigrette club on the menu, I was extremely pleased. But after going through all the motions, I got to the last step and they said that they were out of red wine vinaigrette!? Can you believe that? The same thing happened to me when I was in Kuwait. Oh, I was upset. I ended up settling for the honey mustard and decided to boycott Subway until I at least got back to the States.
The other highlight centered around pop rocks. Would you believe that I never ate them before until today? One of my soldiers was going to throw away some stuff he got in one of his packages and asked if I wanted them. I asked him a whole bunch of questions because I'd never had them before. Anyway, when I was sufficiently informed, I decided to try them out. It was pretty neat. They're like little rocks...and they pop in your mouth. I wonder if that's why they decided to call them pop rocks. If there are any 25 year-olds out there who have yet to try pop rocks, I would highly recommend it.
04 July 2005 1545z
Anyway, no fireworks tonight...not yet, at least. We're planning to watch Independence Day in the b-hut though. That'll come after some gym time. I've got a date with two of my young sergeants. They're going to get me ripped in the five or six days I have left before we fly out of here. We'll see how that works out. Other than that, I spent the day just wrapping up some paperwork and property book issues today. Oh, and the morning was spent getting our redeployment brief...again. There were briefs on legal, customs, reunion, finance, medical, safety, sexual assault, suicide awareness and prevention, and a bunch more. I was a good boy and took notes through the whole thing. I think that was the only thing keeping me awake through the two-hour barrage of powerpoint slides in the 100+ degree tent.
That's all I've got for now. I know some of you were probably expecting some big emo post about July 4th and all, but I'm kinda in a blah mood these days. I'm pretty upbeat...just not to emotional about much right now. I'm sure that'll change in a few days as my platoon reunites and we head back stateside. For now, we're just treading water. Hope all is going well back home.
03 July 2005 1602z
02 July 2005 1855z
Did I mention that I got attacked by a door a few nights ago? I was going into the office to see the First Sergeant, and the wind blew the door closed very quickly behind me. Not having enough time to move my hand, the door closed right on my thumb. It still hurts. And that's all I have to say about that.
30 June 2005 1840z
Anyway, I lay into the kid a little, telling him that I thought he could be doing a lot more than he has been. He was injured a few months back and still can't do a lot of physical work, but I kinda get the feeling that he's given up. I mean, a lot of people have given up by now. The first birds leave for home in less than a week. But I don't know...it just didn't seem like this soldier's style, and I wanted him to know that I was watching and that I expected more from him.
I don't know. It's little stuff like that that I love about the military. I'm starting to look forward to getting back home and starting over with a new unit. I know it'll be a while down the line, but I'm even looking forward to our next deployment, whenever and wherever that'll be. But then again, maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself. It'll be July by the time you read this.
29 June 2005 1055z
Oh well. Thinigs are actually going surprisingly well with the load out. The plan seems to be falling together quite nicely and every day, we pack a few more things and take a few more baby steps in the right direction. We're under two weeks now. Two weeks!
I'm starting to worry about going home. You spend a year away and you think to yourself the whole time, "I can't wait to get back." You have all of these dreams about what it was like and what it will be like. But something is missing. You see, when you're away for a while, you tend to forget the bad things and just concentrate on the good stuff. I think everyone does it. It's like when you break up with someone. Years later, you can remember all of these good things; but when you get back together, all of the other things come back to the surface and you remember why you broke up in the first place. I'm a little worried about that. I mean, I look forward to a lot of things back home, but I'm still dreading some of it. Part of me even considers volunteering for another year or two so that I can avoid some of this stuff a little longer. Some of these things include:
- grading papers
- commuting to school
- making my own meals
- paying for my own food, fuel, housing, etc.
- mowing the lawn
- getting my car towed from my own neighborhood
I don't know. I guess that isn't so bad. I am looking forward to a lot of things too...like grocery shopping, doing my own laundry, women. Oh, and friends and family...I guess they're important too.
I've got work to do though. I'm doing pretty good with limiting my online time since getting back here to Bagram. I spend only about 10-15 minutes every day. I do feel so much more productive without an internet connection. I know that's the best thing for me, but it's hard to keep away. On top of that, the websense filter is blocking out every blog that I normally read...so even if I had unlimited access, I would run out of things to do very quickly after I check my e-mail.
Anyway, with that said, I am off to bed. Good night, readers.
29 June 2005 1055z
From the beginning of this, I've had my platoon and together we supported the whole battalion. That was our mission. We supported them because we were/are Support Platoon. No mattered how screwed up things would get, we knew that our soldiers would be taken care of because that was our job. And that was my responsibility as the support platoon leader. It's funny. I take it so personally when people say things about our battalion because I feel more so than anyone else probably does, that this is my battalion. My battalion. I've said it before. Soldiers in the Army tend to have a lot of pride in their unit. Even if you're in a bad company, you can always be proud of your platoon or your squad or your team. And even if you haven't necessary accomplished anything spectacular on an individual level, you're usually part of some group who has accoomplished something as a whole. That's what the Army is about. One team...one fight.
So now a year has passed. A lot has happened. It is often the case that units start to take a closer look at awards and promotions around now. I look down the line at my soldiers and see how much they've grown over the last year. About a quarter or a third of them received a promotion during the last year, while a simliar number will probably earn awards of some sort...
I think I'm dancing around this too much. Let me just start with a quick explanation of the enlisted promotion system. At a unit level, the company commander can promote any soldier in his unit up to the grade of E-4, specialist. The only real requirement is that the soldier spend a designated amount of time at a certain rank and perform his duties well enough for his chain of command to recommend him for advancement. Up until specialist, this is a pretty straightforward process. However, the jump from specialist (E-4) to sergeant (E-5) is a little more involved.
Enter the STAP program. I have no idea what it stands for, so me saying program at the end may be redundant. Either way, it's a points-based system that is supposed to make the promotion to E-5 more objective at a state-wide level. While promotions up to E-4 are done at a unit level, promotions to grades E-5 and above are done at State based on a packet submitted by each unit. Points are given to soldiers for a number of categories, to include: weapons qualification, PT test, time in service, time in grade, civilian education, military education, leadership evaluations, etc. With these packets in hand, the State takes a look at all of the positions available and fills them in starting at the top of their list.
So before I even left Bragg, I had three very strong E-4s who were near the top of the State's list. One soldier, the platoon even referred to as number one because he was number one on the State's list. Anyway, being so high on the list, you would think that I would have had another sergeant in my platoon by the middle of the deployment. But nearly six months went by and I still had number one and number two and number fourteen...something like that. I don't remember the exact numbers. Anyway, it was pretty frustrating as other soldiers in the battalion were promoted ahead of my guys. In my mind, I had done everything I could for my guys, and it didn't make sense that others would be promoted in front of them. I even talked to a bunch of people who had more experience in the system in order to gain some insight into what was going on. In the end, when I sat down with my soldiers, the only thing I could think to say to them was that we had done everything we could and they just had to have faith in the system. I mean, if ever there were a system based on merit above all else, it would be found here in the Army. I didn't actually say that last sentence out loud, but I believed it.
Now a year is up and two of those three soldiers are now wearing stripes. And as happy as I was to see that happen, it pained me to see number one still a specialist. Even after he was transferred out of my platoon, I followed up on his promotion...something that didn't happen and probably never will. Even if they found the position for him, the promotion would now require him to re-enlist for at least another year, something he is reluctant to do after this last year in which he lost so much faith in the Army and the system. I can't blame the guy and I can't help but feel responsible for this happening while he was under my authority.
So what's the lesson learned? If I had learned the lesson, I would feel much better about myself. But for now, I just try to learn more about the system so that stuff like this doesn't happen again. In the process, though, a soldier gets screwed. For many soldiers, this is a common theme in the Army. Not in my Army though. It shouldn't be.
Unfortunately, stuff like this happens every day in the Army. I'll be honest. This topic came up quite often at the beginning of the deployment, but you start to grow numb to it near the end because you get used to the system not working like it's supposed to. I hadn't thought about this particular issue with this soldier for almost a month...and then someone sat me down yesterday.
The officer promotion system is very different from the enlisted version, but there are some similarities. The promotion from O-1 to O-2 is nearly automatic, like your E1-E4 promotions on the enlisted side. But for O-3 and above, the number of positions can be very limited and many officers don't get promoted until well after they hit their minimum time requirement. Why I thought it'd be any different for me is beyond me. Has my head gotten that big? Do I think that I'm that much better than my counterparts? No, that's not entirely it. When it comes to competence and experience, I think I lost a lot sitting behind a desk this last year. I learned a lot, but I missed out on a lot of field experience, I think. Regrets? None...but I have gained perspective. Is that enough to warrant a promotion? Perspective?
They asked us for a wishlist almost half a year ago. Where do we want to go next? Thinking that I would get whatever I asked for, I probably put more thought into this than the thirty seconds it took many others. I asked myelf, am I ready for command? Do I need more time? Do I need more experience? For some reason, I felt that if given the opportunity, I'd have the influence to retain these guardsmen and train them better than they have been in the past. I even started having ODPs to discuss next year's training with all of the other officers. Then I talked to privates and sergeants to get their perspective.
For some reason, though, it feels like things are not changing and we're not learning lessons. I said yesterday that there are few things worse in the Army than feeling under-utilized. It's sad when we have soldiers who are leaving this institution because they want to do more. Does that make sense? If you want to accomplish more, why would you quit? Logically, it doesn't make sense. But unfortunately, the more time I spend in the Army, the more I understand it.
28 June 2005 0152z
As I was waiting for the bird to arrive last night, I took one last look at the night sky with my head propped up against my duffel bag as I lay there in the sand. I remember the first time I saw that same view a year ago. My platoon had just arrived at the base, and there was nowhere to stay. So we spent the first few nights sleeping on top of the bunkers along the south wall of the camp. I remember thinking to myself how I'd never seen so many stars in the sky before. Granted, I'd never really paid it all that much attention before either.
It's funny. I bought a memory card for my camera just before I went back down to Ghazni to capture moments like this, but I hadn't taken a single picture in the last few weeks. I didn't want to. Things had changed so much since Ghazni was my home, and I kinda wanted to remember the old days. It's hard to explain. I'm not sure if I really understand it myself. Maybe it's because I didn't have my platoon any more. Maybe my six months in Bagram changed my view on things. Maybe it was because I didn't have a job that required me to have three different radios strapped all over me. I didn't really have a job at all.
I'd gone to the JOC the other day to check on the flight manifest for last night. The NCOIC called me "the man without a job" as he brought the list of names up on his computer. The manifest was closed out two days prior with 25 names written down for only about ten seats. I'd asked one of the RTOs to pencil me in as number 26 in the off-chance that I would make it up North. Anyway, when file finally loaded on the computer, my name was number five on the list. Somehow, the man without a job ended up on the bird. It made me feel special to know that I was such a high priority and that I would soon have some more work to do. There are few things worse in the Army than feeling under-utilized.
25 June 2005 1629z
I don't know. I won't spend too much time trying to explain this feeling. Bloggers out there understand this feeling. There are people in your life who read your blog and there are people who don't read your blog. You know who they are. We'll call the BRs and NBRs. Well, when one of your NBR friends comes up to you and asks how things are going, you have to give them context. This is a lot of extra work. When your BR friends talk to you, they already know what's going on in your life, as well as all of the inside jokes and special lingo. Conversations run so much nicer then. Even if you haven't seen them in a month, they're all caught up in your life already and you can skip the small talk. What's even better is when they blog as well. That way, it's a two-way street. With my family, I feel like we have this relationship. I know what's going on with them because of their blogs and vice versa. With everyone else, it's a lot harder to keep up. Like Ben...he never updates his blog, so I actually have to take the effort to ask him what's going on.
Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked here. Before I go on, however, I want to introduce two terms that I hope will get into the mainstream blog vocabulary. Number one is the term eFriend. I think it's pretty self-explanatory. eFriend: n. an online acquaintance or a person with whom you correspond only through the internet. The other is a blogmate, kinda like a classmate or a housemate. If you read enough blogs and blog yourself, you'll find that there are groups of people who tend to refer to other blogs on a regular basis. And when you read something on one blog, you know that readers of another one will understand...because they're blogmates. Usually, they travel similar circles to begin with, but that's not always the case. This is kinda how I feel about the Ultimate Blogger. I feel a certain kinship with the viewers and the other contestants in that show. My family is another example, as are many milBloggers, I think. There's just this common thread that is very much unspoken, but comforting at the same time...to know that other people are going through the same experiences with you. I don't know. I know I'm getting too touchy-feely, so I'll move on.
Below is a link that I found to a survey being done by some grad student at MIT about blogging for his thesis. Feel free to participate if you want. It wasn't all that spectacular of a survey to take because they don't give you an analysis of your personality or some funny joke at the end or anything like that. But it was interesting to see the results of the question about when you started blogging. Out of the thousands of responses already, only a handful of bloggers had started prior to me in 1997, with the majority of the bloggers starting in 2003-2004. For some reason, I'm proud of that. Go figure. Anyway, if you have fifteen minutes to spare, go for it.
The last thing I wanted to talk about was puzzles. I love puzzles. Back when I was a freshman in high school, there would usually be a half-dozen of us huddled around a puzzle in the library before school every morning. Usually, it was between 500 and 2000 pieces. We worked on them every morning, averaging one or two every week if I remember correctly. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that the BMO showed me a site today with the coolest puzzle ever. Anyone want to do this one with me when I get back?
24 June 2005 1736z
Let's start with the property book. Basically, that's a book that lists all of your property on it. Makes sense, right? Any time you take over a unit, you end up signing for all of its equipment, and it is listed in the property book. When you take over a mission like this, you also sign over equipment from the unit before you. Then you get two property books. One is called your organizational property book and one is called the installation property book. So now you have two books that list all of the stuff you've got. Anyway, during the year in Afghanistan, we requested a lot of stuff...and eventually, they gave it to us. Each time they give us stuff, it gets added to the installation property book because it'll end up getting signed over to the unit coming in after us. This includes up-armored humvees, extra machine guns, and even ammunition.
So what's going on now? Well, now, there is a new unit here and we have to sign everything over. The tough part? Well...umm...now you have to find all of the stuff. Some of the stuff is pretty easy to find, like humvees and trucks and computers and 50" plasma screen televisions. There are a lot of other things that you forget about over a year though. I mean, as a good officer or NCO, you shouldn't forget about stuff you've signed for, but it happens. On top of that, my platoon is responsible for making sure that all of the ammunition is still around and that paperwork is signed for every round that was fired throughout the year. Most units were good about filling out the paperwork when they fire it; but not all of them. And being away from my job for six months didn't help with keeping track of everything. So now, when they come back with their ammunition and there isn't as much as when we started...I think you get the point.
On top of that, we have customs inspecting our shipping containers and equipment to go home. The problem is that half of our stuff is down here in Ghazni and half of our stuff is up North. The other problem is that they actually haven't decided what is going home yet. And when I say they, I don't refer to anyone in our unit. This time, it's the big Army that's deciding. So you know when I talked about having two property books? There's the organizational that has all of the equipment that came from Virginia and the installation that has all of the equipment that came from Afghanistan. Well, now we have to do a whole bunch of paperwork to move certain items from the one to the other. Well, we have to find it first and then do the paperwork. And then we have to do the extra paperwork to sign it over to the next unit...one piece at a time. Luckily for me, I was only signed for a few hundred thousand dollars worth of equipment. My boss...he's signed for about $10 million. If you thought he was chain-smoking and drinking too much coffee a few months ago, you can only imagine how concerned he may be now that we're actually going down the list.
So far, it's been going well, but you can hopefully see how things may be going into slight panic mode these days. On top of that, we're still maintaining operations in our AO...which makes it hard to track down things sometimes, but we won't go into that.
So yeah...that's pretty much it for what's going on now. I had a very large role in getting us over here, but they gave the job to a couple of different people to take us back. I know it's wrong of me, but part of me just kinda chuckles at all of these things going wrong. When we deployed, I probably felt the pain along with two or three other people who truly put the effort into getting the job done. I don't think anyone else truly understood the enormity of the task though. And now, it's not like I haven't been helping. Knowing how tough the job is, I've been offering to help a lot. I even go to meetings that I'm not invited to. It's just hard when the people in charge don't know what to do with me. This morning, the S3 asked me what my job was when he saw me at his morning meeting. I said that I didn't have one, but I was there to help. He laughed and a few people commented that they'd love to be in my shoes these days...not the last 18 months, but now. Me, I'd rather be in the fire anyway. And I think I'm about to get thrown back in...or is it that I'm jumping in this time? I don't know. It looks to get interesting though. I'll keep you posted.
23 June 2005 0645z
But with the RIP going on now, there are new faces that pop up every day. Being that I don't really have a job, though, my interaction with these new troops is rather limited. So this morning, when I showed up to the gym to find Heath (who made it safely to Bagram last night, btw) replaced by a couple of Texans, I had this feeling that this would be the first of many changes. In a few weeks, this won't be our FOB Ghazni any more. The D-fac is already showing it. There is a little bit of a Tex-Mex flavor starting to show through these days. And the voices on the radios are starting to shift from the Southwestern Virginia accent to a mix between Texas and Spanish. They're small things, I know, but I guess it's good. It'll make it easier to leave this place, at least...not that it's going to take much convincing.
Anyway, I found more work to do today. The key is showing up to meetings. If you go to enough meetings, you will eventually be tasked with something. Anyway, the only reason I didn't go to meetings in the past was because I didn't really have a role or a reason to go. But you shouldn't let that stop you when you're an officer. Back in BAF, the XO would invite me to meetings all of the time. What's funnier is that people used to invite me to poker games too...the funny part being that I accepted the majority of the meeting invites but never joined in with the poker nights. Does that seem disturbing to anyone else? I don't think that I'm anti-social, but I definitely have tendencies. Oh well. I do have some real work to do now, so I'll get started. MTF
22 June 2005 1451z
Fresh snow in winter and light footstep crunches
Diesel-soaked clothes when you're done fueling
These are a few of my favorite things
Washing your laundry in red plastic pails
Four hour shifts at the Motel 6 jail
All of the trinkets Yaqoob Deuce can bring
These are a few of my favorite things
Lying in tents when it can't get much hotter
Jingle trucks filled with ten pallets of water
Sweating so much that your brown t-shirt clings
These are a few of my favorite things
No hot showers
Or 110 power
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad
Burning fresh poo with the help of some fuel
Big wooden boxes with stencils of mules
Piss tubes and crude bathroom wall drawings
These are a few of my favorite things
The MWR to yourself at midnight
Playing flag football, except for that fight
Gray stains on uniforms from M-4 slings
These are a few of my favorite things
Suprise detonations when people go crazy
Playing playstation and just being lazy
Brown paper packages arrive on the ring
These are a few of my favorite things
Counting days til
Groundhog day's through
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad
22 June 2005 0428z
|
Me - Jackie Chan and/or The Rock Keller - Alan Hale Jr, aka the Skipper from Gilligan's Island Hudson - Larry the Cable Guy from the Blue Collar Comedy Tour Layne - Bill Engvall from the same Orso - Kiefer Sutherland Shelton - Billy Bob Thornton Suh - Jason Scott Lee Tomson - Justin Timberlake Pilkington - Robert De Niro Goode - Jake Gyllenhaal Barber - Joe Pesci, aka My Cousin Vinny |
Fuller - Denzel Washington Hackett - Bob Denver, aka Gilligan from Gilligan's Island Hardy - William Sanderson, aka Larry from Newhart Meyers - Mike Myers Miller - Michael Richards, aka Kramer from Seinfeld Morozewicz - Owen Wilson Reinhard - Tobey Maguire Ryman - Paul Teutul, Sr from American Chopper Shifflett - Seann William Scott, aka Stiffler Watson - William Shatner |
Anyway, this whole exercise was pretty fun. I would recommend that you try it at home with your family, friends, work, etc. It's pretty entertaining and it helps bring everyone together. Plus you get to see what everyone thinks of everyone else. Good times.
21 June 2005 1623z
Actually, I had everything packed up and ready to go; but it ends up that there actually may be some things left for me to do around here. So it looks like I'll stick around the FOB for at least a few more days.
It was a pretty relaxing day today. In addition to a football game and a very competitive chess match, I had a chance to catch up with a bunch of fellow officers this afternoon. I spent about an hour or so chatting with Roo and talking with my old boss about what things'll be like in the battalion when we get back to the States. With the officer assignments coming closer to the surface, we were bouncing ideas about who we would want to see in various positions. It was kinda fun while it lasted.
Then I stepped outside and followed my nose to the barbecue between B-huts 11 and 12. All of my RTOs from my days as Battle Captain were there, just chillin' and eating burgers. After running non-stop for nearly a year, they finally had a chance to sit back and relax this afternoon. It was nice catching up with them. I'd spent a good thousand or so hours sitting in the TOC with those guys and got almost as close to them as I did with some of the guys in my own platoon.
Anyway, it looks like I've tracked down some work for me to do tomorrow; so I'll head to bed early tonight so that I can get an early start. In my free time, I've decided to come up with a cast of actors to play all of the characters in my life. When I was younger, I used to read Wizard and they would always do this for comic books that they wanted to turn into movies. So today, I found myself thinking to myself, if they made a movie about me, who would play me? Suggestions are welcome. Hopefully, I'll have my list done by tomorrow.
21 June 2005 0142z
And then there are the soldiers who have taken to the world of online dating. This is probably the most interesting of pasttimes around here. You can walk into the MWR and look down the line of seven computers on any night. There will undoubtedly be at least one soldier scanning through profiles of ladies back home...usually it'll be two or three or four. Now don't get me wrong. I don't bring this up to be mocking or critical. In my last year before coming to Afghanistan, I did much of the same, and I met some very nice and interesting people through that practice. And so I bring this up because I can completely empathize with these single soldiers. It gets lonely out here.
Every night, you see these married guys trudge along to the phones to call their wives and their children. And while I'm sure the conversations are somewhat bittersweet and filled with small talk on certain days, it's something I envy. I understand that they make a huge sacrifice leaving their families for a year and a half, but single soldiers make a different kind of sacrifice. They have to put their life on hold for a year and a half without the ability to pursue a relationship. So yeah, I don't blame these guys for not wanting to wait until they get home before they get started. If they can get a headstart and get back into the dating scene while they're still here, all the power to them.
I don't know...it's a lot easier when you're busy. You don't have time to think about this stuff. But when things slow down, your mind starts to migrate back to the same topics. It's bad. I'm sure I'm not the only one who resorted to calling an ex-girlfriend or two when they first got here...just to have someone to talk to. I'm a little better now. I just don't call anyone at all these days. I just write. It's almost like having someone to talk to at the end of a long day.
20 June 2005 0452z
Not much else exciting going on besides that. Yesterday afternoon, I started looking at some real estate because the BICC was looking for a place in Baltimore. I didn't realize how much cheaper housing was once you crossed the border into Maryland. Over there, I could actually afford a single-family home for much less than what I'm paying right now. Hehe...when I say what I'm paying, I really mean what the US Government/taxpayers are paying through my housing allowance. Anyway, good stuff, though I'm not quite ready to leave the Commonwealth just yet.
This morning, I got back into the running again. I cut another 20 seconds or so off of my three-mile time. I may not have much longer to run at this altitude though. I'm almost wrapped up with my work down here, and I'll probably be up at Bagram before the end of this week. Checking the date on my watch, it's almost July now...knocking on three weeks before we head out of here. I can't wait.
18 June 2005 1817z
I've had a chance to link up with a bunch of the other LTs over the last few days too. I saw Heath this morning in the gym, and he was pretty ripped. I guess he's been taking weights out with him on missions so he can keep up with the lifting routine. Ricky's doing pretty good too. I've been working with his platoon on a bunch of ammo issues as we start to turn everything in for heading home.
Other than that, it's just the same old routine. The clock seems to be ticking a little faster these days. Maybe it's just me. Oh, I sat down and wrote a haiku this afternoon, inspired by a site that I visited a few days ago. I've also realized that I haven't worked on my poetry much recently...and this one may be a good illustration of that realization. It's about people coming home to the FOB after being gone for a long time. I call it Homecoming.
Go to the latrine
They must be back from mission
Buckets filled with poo
Ahh...it's nice to have everyone back at the FOB, but you just don't get that clearance underneath you any more when you sit down. When you have several hundred people sharing about a dozen stalls...I think you get the point. Anyway, I promise to work on my poetry if you forgive me for sinking to this level of maturity.
Last thing. I forgot to mention that we played the wood game today. That was nice. I was having flashbacks of my first few months here. Anyway, that's really it for now. Inventories and paperwork tomorrow. I can't wait.
17 June 2005 1556z
Oh, I forgot to mention the pounding headache/toothache I still have from the first pass play. I ended up headbutting the hardest headed soldier in the battalion on our first defensive play of the game as I dove to intercept the pass and took to the sidelines immediately after for a series or two. While there, I checked my mouth in the humvee mirror and all of my teeth seem to still be in place, but I would be spitting a little bit of blood throughout the rest of the game. I didn't even get to enjoy my steak dinner afterward because I couldn't chew without the pain shooting up my cheek. I've got a little knot on the side of my left eye too. I hope that'll go down tomorrow without too much discoloration. Oh, and the other guy...I wish I could say that he is feeling the pain as well, but he just walked away from that collision like nothing happened. Oh well.
Anyway, I ended up finishing phase I of my advance course online this morning. It took me right around 50 hours (counting sleep and meals and a couple of chess games) to finish the 108 credit hour course. I'm pretty proud of myself. I could've finished it in a 24-hour period if I really tried, I'm sure. But hey, it gave me something to do these last few days. Now I'm right back at square one, unemployed and looking for work. At least I get to catch up on my blogging, right?
17 June 2005 0430z
Other than that, things are running rather smoothly around here. We're still just slowly packing up and getting things prepped to head back home. It's only been about five days since I've shown up, but I've got a pretty good routine now. Wake-up is usually between 0000 and 0030, and then I head to the JOC to BS a little before PT. It's usually between 0030 and 0100 before I get into the gym. Around 0300, I'll call my platoon sergeant to do any coordination and then it's off to chow. After that, it's random stuff to keep me occupied until lunch. The last two days were spent taking online courses...before that, I don't remember what I did. 0700 is lunch chow, and the S4 window is between 0800 and 1200. I've been trying to max that out recently, if just to make the time pass faster. Dinner chow starts at 1200, and post-dinner activities pretty much consist of losing multiple chess games over at the aid station. And that's pretty much it. I know it's a pretty cush life, so I won't complain. I'm looking for work to do - believe me. There just isn't enough to go around these days.
Anyway, apologies for the bland post. For those TJ guys out there, though, I'll leave you with a little gem. I stumbled onto Derek Sugimura's blog a few days ago. It's kinda neat reading about him and thinking about how much we've all changed since high school.
15 June 2005 1822z
What else did I do today? Well, besides eating three meals and taking a two-hour S4, I lost five straight chess games to the Ghazni chess champion, threw around a football for a few minutes in preparation for the Texas vs. Virginia flag football game on Friday, and I completed four of my correspondence courses for my officer advanced course. *gasp* Yes, you heard me correctly. I actually did some work today. I know I've been shamming ever since we did our RIP for the tower mission, but I have tried to contribute in my own way without stepping on too many toes. Since I don't have a job any more, anything I do is technically someone else's job...though some people accept the assistance better than others. Anyway, with the correspondence courses, I have 17 more to knock out before I go down to Benning in August. If I can get that done in the next few days, that will free up more time for when I get home. Other than that, it's the same old thing around here. Though now that I've found something to do, I'm hoping that it remains uneventful for another day or two. MTF.
13 June 2005 1749z
Other than that, I spent the rest of my afternoon making phone calls and doing laundry. I called Human Resources with Fairfax County, and they said that they wouldn't hold a position for me until I got back for good. I can understand their position, but that kinda sucks. That means that I won't know where I'll be teaching until late July or August when I finally get back stateside and have the opportunity to go over to the personnel office on Edsall Road. Until then, I'll just hang out here, I guess.
13 June 2005 0704z
Take the combat patch. This is one that really gets to me. After serving in a combat theater, you are authorized to wear your unit patch on your right shoulder. There is a certain level of prestige associated with this depending on the unit you were assigned to while in combat. Anyway, there was some contraversy over which patch we were supposed to wear as we fell under the command of the 25th Infantry Division while in Afghanistan. So at one point, soldiers had a choice to wear either the 25th ID patch or the 29th, ours. For me, depending on the reasoning, I take it rather personally when soldiers choose to wear another unit's patch over our own. It makes me feel like we haven't done our jobs. I would hate to think that we have soldiers who spent a year away from home and away from their families and come back home preoccupied with thoughts of being cheated or mistreated. I would hope instead that they come back stronger and smarter from this experience, with lessons to pass on to those who will follow. And it's not hard. It doesn't take much to go from "wow, this sucks" to "wow, this sucks. How can I make it better." I know I'm simplifying a lot of things, but I think it is pretty simple. There's just a lot of negative energy floating around that keeps us from making progress sometimes.
Anyway, that's all I've got for now. My mornings continue to be rather productive. I just need to stretch that out into the afternoons more. I had a good workout this morning and even cut about 20 seconds off my three-mile time. I had an opportunity to catch up on some inventories and counseling too. This afternoon, we'll try to wrap up some ammunition issues and more packing before calling it a day. Op tempo seems to be dragging these days, but I'm sure it'll change when everyone else gets back in from the field. I'll keep you posted. For now, it's lunch time.
12 June 2005 0420z
It kinda feels like the weekend here, but I'm trying to make myself productive. We'll try to pack up the barracks today...enough so that all that is left is about a duffel's worth or so. I've got a feeling that when everyone else starts to pack, my guys will have to start working pretty hard on other assigned tasks, so it doesn't hurt to get a little headstart now. Plus with only about 30 days left, I think they can start going without some of their amenities. I think they agree. Today is probably going to be laundry day, along with some inventorying and ammo stuff. After that's all done...maybe a few days or so, I really don't have any other reason to be down here at Ghazni except to hang out with my platoon a little and catch up on sleep. For some reason, I don't get the opportunity to sleep much up in Bagram. I'm not sure why.
